A new weekly radio show devoted to improving the public understanding of science has been launched by the Wits Radio Academy and Voice of Wits 90.5.

The Science Inside is broadcast on VoW 90.5 at 6pm on Mondays and made available online. Each week the show goes inside the science of a theme or story in the news, such as fracking, rhino poaching, a train crash, the salvage of the Costa Concordia or the shortage of ARVs.

The programme is aimed at the youth, and is being produced with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It intends to make scientific topics interesting and entertaining without sacrificing accuracy.

Prof. Franz Krüger, director of the Wits Radio Academy, said the new project is a very exciting one. "Radio is a great medium to extend interest in science. It's an important
challenge: as we know, South Africa's science and maths education was ranked second last in the world last year, just ahead of Yemen, according to a World Economic Forum Report."

The show relies on interviews with top journalists, researchers and activists, and also features listeners' questions, answered by a university student in the appropriate field. A regular feature called "Two-minute Science" looks at new developments, while another,
"The Science OUTside" takes the show on a trip out of the studio.